


Ultimate Beastmaster - DC Edition

by tattletaletales



Category: DCU (Comics), ultimate beastmaster
Genre: (who write about it), Gen, bruce wayne is paying for it, do not do this at home, do not take this seriously, this was a dumb idea, this was an excellent idea, we are the first people in the UB fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-04 13:56:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21198779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tattletaletales/pseuds/tattletaletales
Summary: Batman Inc. presents a Wayne foundation supported event to find out which superhero in the world (the USA) can take down the beast and has the stuff that it takes to become. The ultimate. Beastmaster.





	1. Round 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was born out of a very fun afternoon of watching Ultimate Beastmaster and discussing which superhero would take part, what they would do and how they would fail.
> 
> Co-producer and Executive Consultant Madazoid (who doesn't have an account on here) did most of the research, since this is taking place BEFORE the Flashpoint Event (aka New 52) but AFTER Batman returned.

Evening had fallen and the usual hot summer air had cooled to an agreeable temperature. Outside of the city’s boundaries was an enormous steel structure, people milling about the set for some last-minute preparations, to check equipment, the rigs and the bright floodlights mounted seemingly everywhere.  
“This is going to be a disaster.” Barbara couldn’t help but grin, her mask in her hands. It would cover her whole face, and while it looked unassuming for now, it would overlay a hologram of her Oracle insignia when activated. She was already too distinct with her wheelchair, but she even so, she wouldn’t miss this night for the world.  
“I am inclined to agree Miss Gordon.” Alfred didn’t sigh but there was a distinct pause. “But it would seem that higher powers than us have decided that it will be worth it.”  
There was so much Barbara could say to that, but instead she simply cackled and put the mask on. 

“Between Batman Incorporated becoming a new way of sponsoring heroes publicly, and the old-set success of several superhero teams all over the world, superheroes have become a fixture of our everyday life. They seem larger than life – and some of them are. But not all.  
Today in this special episode of Ultimate Beastmaster, five superhero teams – the Justice League, Batman Incorporated, Titans, Young Justice, and the Birds of Prey, as well as a special Civilian Team, will be sending out two candidates each. Competitors must either be non-powered or de-powered – any use of metahuman powers will lead to automatic disqualification.  
The winning of $10.000 sponsored by Batman Incorporated, will be going to a charity of their choice.  
And as a special treat today, there will be commentators from each of these teams as well.  
Today these heroes will be facing the Beast – starting with level one, where they will go through:  
Lockjaw – where they must climb and balance along a beam to get inside the Beast  
Gear Head – which requires the heroes to balance along two over-sized and moving gears, jumping onto the first, then the second and then the landing platform  
Face Plant – the most famous obstacle, where contestant steady themselves on a forwards leaning platform and then jump towards a chain, grab it and then swing towards the next obstacle  
Energy Coils – two platforms moving up and down where timing is key to jump from one to the other  
The Rack – a pair of seesaw with four bars in total, through which the contestants must swing leading to the last obstacle of level one  
The Mag Wall – a climbable wall, but the contestants must watch out, as their foot- and handholds can detach from this wall at any moment.  
Each obstacle a competitor reaches gives them five points. Along these obstacles are several point thrusters, worth ten points each on the first level, with one mega point thruster right at the end. This point thruster starts counting down the second the contestant sets foot on the course – how many points are left depends how fast they get there.  
Let’s see, if these superheroes have it to not only take out some of our world’s worst villains – but also the Beast!

The booth the commentators where inside of was bigger than usual – with only one of them per team it seemed strange to separate them.  
Lois Lane clacked her teeth, impatient. “Are we going to start soon?” She threw a glance at the rambunctious teens and barely-adults beside her. They ignored Lois’ muttering, continuing to elbow each other, brag and laugh.  
“Oh, we will be starting soon.” Oracle answered, her mask lit up, but the mirth in her voice unmistakable. Lois turned her eyes back to the red-headed woman. She had never heard of Oracle before, but from the reverence of the other heroes, Lois could conclude that she was either far more skilled than she had first assumed or held a great amount of blackmail over everyone’s heads. Most likely both.  
Alfred Pennyworth, the last of the commentators, appeared on the stage seemingly from nowhere.  
“We are about to start.”  
Almost as soon as he had finished talking Lois could see the lights on the closest camera blinking. The man sure had impeccable timing.

“Good evening everybody!” Lois’ smile was visibly strained. “We have all come here today, to watch a whole lot of people splash straight into some water, with enough cranberry juice in it to look just like blood, all in the name of charity I’m sure that’s not going to give anybody flash-backs.”  
The man behind the camera was waving, but Lois ignored him. Much the same way she ignored the perfectly scripted paragraph that had been handed to her.  
“First round there are twelve contestants and four are getting the boot - of course, this isn’t going to go down without the United States military trying to co-opt it, so we are now starting with Steve Trevor for the Civilian Team.”

Steve grinned into the camera, unbearably conscious of the fact that he was about to be immensely humiliated within only a couple of seconds. He braved a looked over the contestants, before turning towards the commentators.  
Whatever Lois Lane was saying, Steve had no idea. But from the way people were running around, pointing at papers in their hands, it surely wasn’t nice. But Lois and he had been chosen for the same reasons – the producers wanted a few normal humans to go set a contrast, and they were already noticeably and publicly entangled with them.  
If anybody wanted to attack Diana indirectly, they already knew about him. Same with Superman and Lois.  
A man waved at Steve and dropped the congenial smile, walking towards the strange construction.  
He would most likely fail. Steve had experience even with the most “normal” of superheroes and held no illusions about his own chances.  
_But then again…_

“CiviliannumberoneknownasSteveTrevorisoffslowlyreeeaaallyslowlyupthe-“  
“Yikes.” Lois inched away from the excitable red head beside her.  
“Yeah, just let him do his thing.” Cyborg shrugged, uncaring of the way that Impulse was narrating everything that Steve was doing. He pressed a button on his forearm.  
Lois cocked her eyebrow.  
“Muted him.” He explained.  
“Why invite chatter-box anyway?”  
“Master Impluse is representing the Young Justice team.” Alfred explained. “As no other member wanted to be in his place.”  
“Great.” Lois muttered. Nobody had given her an option to pass the job along.  
“And now!” Oracle raised her voice. “Steve Trevor is passed the first two obstacles, Lockjaw and Gear Head with ten points and is now at Face Plant!”

Steve looked at the chain hanging in front of him to the point thruster right above. He couldn’t win this through speed, he knew that. The only thing he could do was get more points than the others and hope to inch his way into level two. Nobody could hold it against him that he failed, when he at least made it to level two.  
Palms still firmly pressed against the Plexiglas of Face Plant, he crouched slightly; eyes focused on the point thruster. There was a roar from the stands, but Steve ignored it.  
He jumped, leaped as high as he could. His left arm shot out, barely making it to the point thruster.  
There was a beep and it turned green, and Steve didn’t have the time to grin as he turned his head slightly, his mind focusing on the next-  
_SPLASH_

Lois was laughing too hard to say anything. The others looked on in shock.  
“Looks like Steve would have had a better time going second.” Lois finally wheezed out. “He’s got twenty points, but man what a way to do it.”  
Oracle put her head in her hands, distorting the hologram. “You’re supposed to climb _up_ the rope to get that one, what was he-“  
“It seems like somebody has now informed Master Trevor of his mistake.”

“Well.” Steve looked at the construction, as if he was seeing it in a whole new light. “Damn.”

“Herewegoherewego!” Impulse shouted, taking Beast Boy into a chokehold and his mice from his hands. “Redrobinsup!”  
“Alright, RR.” Cyborg nodded as he watched Red Robin walk past the that was pointing to him. “There are a lot of Bats out here today – I thought Bat-Inc only had two people coming?” He turned to Alfred.  
“Yes, however Master Red Robin is competing for young Master Impulse’s team, Young Justice.”  
“Stacking the deck, huh? So even if another team technically wins, it’s still a victory for Gotham?” Lois’ eyes twinkled.  
In the background Beast Boy finally decided to simply turn into a cat, escaping Impulse’s clutches.  
“Oh, this isn’t about who wins for Gotham.” Oracle grinned.

Tim jumped off the last Gear Head, perfectly timed. He had taken one swing backwards, which had not been necessary, but in his eyes the time loss was better than hitting the landing pat, in case he miscalculated. So far, no feasible point thrusters to be seen.  
There was one at the top of the chain, but it wasn’t something he had any interest in getting. Too much time and effort. He couldn’t just think of the first level in and of itself. There were three more levels to go and he needed to save his strength for them.  
He jumped off, grabbed the chain and tore himself to the side, changing trajectory.

“He got on the-“ Lois faltered for a moment.  
“Energy coils.” Alfred stated calmly.  
“Energy coils, put he’s still 5 points behind – never mind, he’s on the second one, so he’s got twenty points as well.”  
Lois put her microphone down and looked at Oracle for confirmation. The three boys were having fun, Impulse still narrating fervently into a muted mike, but if she wanted actual information, Alfred Pennyworth and Oracle were the way to go.  
Oracle nodded.

Tim was seething inside. Oh, the obstacle course was fine enough – nothing he couldn’t do when half drugged with fear toxin. But the point thrusters were out of his reach.  
Jason was 6 feet tall and Dick was 5’10’’. Tim was 5’5’’.  
It wouldn’t matter in the end. Tim had to make sure of that.  
Tim swung between two bars, eyeing the next point thruster. He let out a measured breath. This one he could properly get, but again, the effort would be too great. As he swung to the next, he could hear an excited cry stand out from the rest of the crowd.  
Tim couldn’t suppress the smile blossoming on his face. Even when competing, Dick was always on his side, delighted in seeing even simple acrobatics performed. Another swing and jump and he was at the Mag Wall.

“Well, I guess he’s used to losing his footing when climbing – Gotham’s practically falling apart by the second.” Cyborg snarked, Beast Boy snickering beside him.  
“Dude, I’ve seen him try to kick into a wall once, to make a foothold.”  
Alfred did not react. He did not say anything.  
Lois and Oracle inched away from him.  
“HesgotthepointthingyatleastoneofthemcantseewhyhedidntgettheothersANDhegetstwelvemorefromthemegathrustthing-“  
“There you go!” Beast Boy cheered, as a puff of smoke erupted. “First contestant to get through!”  
“Second contestant of the night.” Lois rolled her eyes.

“Great job!” Dick shot forward and hugged Tim tight enough to lift him off the ground.  
“Krgh.” Tim stuttered.  
“Hey, Dickhead! Let replacement breath, or are you trying to cheat your way through this.” Jason called from the side.

“-andsowecanclearlyseethatRedRobinisthebestRobin-“  
“Woah, woah, hold it right there!” Beast Boy whirled around. “We’ve got the OG Robin, who is definitely the best!”  
Lois cocked her head to the side, a story obviously unfolding in front of her.  
“They are here to compete for charity.” Alfred threw in, his tone clearly displeased. “Not for any childish competition.”  
“This _is_ a competition.” Oracle’s eyeroll was audible. “Forget about who comes in first – the Robins have their own race going on right now.”  
“Isn’t there one missing?” Lois egged them on.  
“There is. And trust me he was _not_ happy.”

“I guess you’ll have to make do with being the third best Robin.” Jason not so gently poked his elbow into his younger brother’s ribs.  
Dick decided to ignore their roughhousing. He was in it to win as well.  
“You guys are so childish.”  
Dick turned to his teammate.  
“C’mon, you love us anyways.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Gives you something to watch on a quite evening.”  
He counted the slight uptick of her lips as a win.

Black Canary flipped the hair out of her face. She had been offered countless of hair ties but had declined every single one of them. If she could kick Gorilla Grodd’s butt with her hair flying about, she could do anything with open hair.  
“I’ve got powers sure.” She shrugged at the camera. “But it’s not like they can help me here.”

“Alright, the first Bird of Prey is up!” Oracle leaned forward, excited. “Red Robin did well enough, but now it’s time for a real pro to do this.”  
“Her team, I guess?” Loise turned to Cyborg.  
“Her team.”

Black Canary didn’t get any of the point thrusters. She was a bit quicker than Red Robin, but not by much, and unbeknownst to her she agreed with him.  
At this point getting the extra points was simply too much of a hassle.

“Black Canary is a street brawler at heart, but she’s putting up a good show at the more acrobatic tasks.” Oracle reported, enthusiasm sparked. “Only Mag Wall to go, and she has to get to the mega point thruster quicker than Red Robin to get ahead of him in the rankings.”  
“Oh, wait a sec-“  
The entire crowd cried out.

Black Canary grit her teeth. Climbing was by far her least favourite thing to do, and usually she avoided it whenever possible. She had already swapped out her usual high heels for a pair of more sensible boots, but even those seemed to get in her way.  
She put her foot down and grabbed for the next handhold. She needed to be faster!  
She leant forward and suddenly her center of gravity shifted. She slid, her hand jerked back, her left foot tried to compensate, making the situation worse.  
She tumbled down.

“A rather unfortunate fall.” Alfred gently put his hand on Oracle’s shoulder.  
“Did the handle fall off?” Lois looked at Cyborg. She wished she had a way to quickly replay what had just happened.  
“Nah, only looked like it.” Beast Boy piped up. “She was going too fast.”  
“Yeah.” Cyborg agreed. “Slid right off. Damn that’s gotta feel bad.”

Black Canary flicked the wet hair from her face. “You might want to step back.” She said, exceedingly calm. “Because I’m gonna start shouting now.”

Jason cracked his neck as he approached the camera. The operator was desperately trying to hide behind it.  
“If you don’t know who I am, you will by the time this is finished.” His grin was sharp and thankfully hidden away behind his mask. “I’m going to crush this.”  
He walked onwards, satisfied with the few words he had spoken. He had watched some of the episode, if only to get a look at the obstacles. He wasn’t about to divulge in his entire sob story. But a simple boast, that he knew he could back up?  
Jason had always been fonder of heels rather than faces when it came to wrestling.

“Red Hood is competing for Batman Incorporated-“  
“_What?_”  
“- and currently moving quickly through the tasks at hand.”  
Lois shook her head, skipping over the fond tone in Alfred’s words. “I’m sorry, but did you just say, that Red Hood – _the_ Red Hood – is competing for Batman Incorporated? What the hell?”  
“He was a Robin you know.” Oracle explained at her shocked face. “He has a stake in the ex-Robin competition as well.”  
“Not that he’s going to win.” Beast Boy grinned. “Our’s still the best of them all.”

Jason was behind on time, but it was oh so satisfying to hit each and every point thruster on his way through the stage. He kicked at the third one that was between two set of bars.  
No way for him to get the best time, but the most points? Oh, definitely.  
He jumped to the third and then to the fourth bar.

“OH!” The crowd winced.  
“Smart move right there – slamming chest first into the next obstacle, is one way to make sure you get to it.” Lois grinned.  
“Yikes.” Cybrog shook his head. “He’s still on it, doesn’t look too winded either.”  
“Have you ever _seen_ Hood fight?” Beast Boy cowered. “You would think he’s from Krypton, the way he tanks hits.”  
“Which I always tell him to stop doing.” Oracle bit out. “I honestly hope this is going to come back to bite him in the ass.”  
Alfred coughed reproachfully.

Jason landed light footed, squarely in the lead. Only seven points on the mega thruster and a smarting ribcage, but better than Tim. Which was all that mattered.  
“Cakewalk.” He grinned as he hopped off the platform. He then quickly walking back, before his older brother could tackle him in front of the camera, full of unnecessary worry.

“Okay, how is this one justified?” Lois turned to Oracle as the next contestant stepped up. Clad in bright red, Flash struck a few poses and did the running man, while he waited for the buzzer to go off.  
“The second he uses his speed he’s out.” Oracle explained. “Not a lot of places he could use it on anyway.”

Wally bit his lip as he slowly climbed up Lockjaw. Normally he would simply run over narrow walkways, his speed keeping him upright. As he reached the Platform he turned to the crowd.  
“Easy as pie!” He shouted out.  
“Go!” “C’mon, move it!”  
Wally grinned back. He had enough time, so he gave them a thumbs up, before climbing onto the first gear.  
“Woah!”  
He leaned forward and clutched at the edges.  
“Alright, keep calm.” Wally muttered as he swung his legs over to get into position. He only had to jump at the right time to get over. Nothing he hadn’t done before.  
…when he could use his speed.  
As he moved back and forth, he realized that perhaps he had taken the challenges to lightly.

“He’s a bit slow.” Beast Boy muttered. He was sharing Cyborgs microphone after his own got stolen by Impulse who had managed a whole paragraph of information before getting muted again. To appease him Cyborg put it on and off again.  
“Yeah, well he can’t use his speed.”  
Beast Boy wacked Cyborg.  
“I mean really slow, look at him.”  
At that point Flash jumped off, just as the gear started swinging backwards.  
Lois burst out laughing.

“Mistimed it.” Wally grinned after picking himself up from the matt. “Guess this thing wasn’t my speed after all.”

“No puns.” Lois groaned.  
“Honey, you’ve got a storm coming.” Oracle grinned behind her mask. Alfred coughed gently.  
“We have now seen members of nearly every team – one Civilian contestant with Steve Trevor, Young Justice represented by Red Robin, Black Canary for the Birds of Prey-“  
Oracle let out a soft groan at that.  
“Red Hood for Batman Incorporated and the Flash for the Justice League.”  
“So, our last team is going to be…?” Lois looked around. She could put Oracle, Alfred and even Impulse to a team, but she wasn’t sure about Cyborg and Beast Boy.  
“Now we’re only getting started – with the first and _best_ Robin, for the Titans!”  
“They had to take out the “Teen” part, so he could make the cut.” Cyborg ribbed.  
“You’re just jealous ‘cause you don’t have a Robin running for the Justice League.” Beast Boy shot right back.

Dick glared grimly at the camera. The cowl sat heavy around his neck, and the cape was dragging along the dusty ground.  
His lips were pressed tight but wobbled. He erupted into a grin.  
“Holy character switch Batman!”  
He pulled the cowl off, the blue Nightwing insignia a beacon in the darkness.

Oracle’s laugh was too genuine for even Lois Lane to moan about it.

Dick approached the Jawbreaker and for one second had the very bad idea of doing a cartwheel across it. He discarded it immediately. There would be enough opportunities to show off, especially after Jason’s complete butchery of acrobatics.  
As the buzzer went off, Dick ran along the narrow beam, hands at his side to balance. He could not fathom why everybody else had to practically crawl up to get there.  
One jump and he was on the first gear, another and on the second. What exactly had Wally done wrong here?

“And he’s already at Face Plant!” Cyborg turned to Beast Boy.  
“You sure that isn’t against the rules somehow? How the hell is he moving that fast?”  
“I don’t know, dude. But he sure is going to beat everybody else here.”

Dick had passed by the point thrusters – the way level one was going there, was no need to get them. That, and it would be a detour, taking away from the path he had already routed through the course.  
He grinned and whooped with joy, as he jumped towards the first bar of The Rack and immediately launched forward legs outstretched. His knees went over the other bar and he flipped around, left hand already outstretched to hit the point thruster – since it was right there – right hand to the side as well to keep in balance.  
He dismounted with a split, the move taking just enough momentum away that he _wouldn’t_ simply crash into the next bar.  
Hands then legs over bar again and dismount.  
Dick was laughing breathless as he climbed along the wall, already missing the carefree jumping, instead of being pressed up against a wall. He hit the last two point thrusters – he hadn’t gotten the ones Jason had collected on Face Plant and Energy Coils, but the 23 points on the mega thruster weren’t anything to scowl at.  
He jumped off the wall, raised his hands and then bowed.

“Jesus Christ, I think the Olympics are missing somebody.” Lois chocked out. “Just - how?”  
“Nightwing, dude.” Beast Boy grinned. “Told you he was the best.”  
“Indeed, a very good performance, though in points he is somewhat behind Red Hood.”  
Cyborg let out a deep sigh. “Why’s he on Titans again? Isn’t he in the Justice League too?”  
“And now we have the one contestant we have all been waiting for this entire evening. Lois, I think you are up.” Oracle interrupted with a grin as she saw the next person approaching the mouth of the Beast.  
Lois let out a heartfelt groan.  
“Here we go, I guess.”

Amanda Waller sized up the course in front of her. She couldn’t win this. She knew that.  
“There are some things in life, that you just can’t let other people do.” She said to the camera, before turning towards it. “And this is one of them. In fact, as a life advice – don’t let other people do things. Do them yourself.”  
She stalked off towards the obstacle course.

“Amanda Waller everyone.” Lois said, her voice completely flat.

“How in the world did she beat out W- Flash?” Cyborg cried.  
Beast Boy cackled. “Dude, who knew the Wall had it in her?” Too bad that not everybody would get his amazing pun. The few people that mattered would groan at him though, and that was all he needed to know.  
“You guys know she can watch the episode back, right?” Oracle offered up. The two boys quickly closed their mouths.  
“She’s a bit small for Face Plant…” Lois didn’t pay any attention to them. Oh, she did not like Waller, but she had to respect the fact that she was putting herself on the line.  
Amanda Waller jumped off, grabbing at the very end of the chain.  
“She’s got it!” Lois crowed out, incredulous. “Holy shit – look at that!”  
“That’s – actually quite impressive.” Oracle admitted. On stage Amanda Waller was gritting her teeth, a look of anger and concentration alike on her face, as she slowly climbed the chain upwards before stopping.  
“She’s holding on!”

She wouldn’t be able to make it up far enough or be able to swing to the next obstacle. But Amanda Waller would be damned if she didn’t hold on as long as she could.

Beast Boy looked conflicted. “That was – that was actually awesome.” He looked at Cyborg, who looked just as unsure as he did. Amanda Waller had held on to the chain for nearly an entire minute before she was buzzed out. Who knew how long she would have clung to it, just to see it to the end.  
Suddenly Cyborg’s microphone was swiped clean out of his hand.  
“NextupSUPERBOY!”

Conner looked at the camera then at the operator and then slightly to the side. Where was he supposed to look when somebody was shoving a giant camera right in his face?  
“So, I’m wearing an inhibitor for this challenge – all the challenges.” He explained, babbling. “No superpowers, but we were asked about it and I really wanted to come, so here I am! Inhibitor and all. And Red Robin wanted to come to. But yeah, I’m looking forward to this.”

“HeresuperboygoesfirstobstaclenoproblemhesabitslowbutiguesstheyallhavebeensoitsnotasurprisereallysecondoneisnotonetounderrestimateweallsawwhathappenedwithflashiguessicanseewhyhewouldfallthatthinglooksreallyricketyifyoucantjustrunacrosshesatfaceplantthankgodheneedstomovefasterifhewantstogettoleveltwothenagainhealreadybeattheflashandifhegetsthenexttwothingshewillkickouttheciviesgotthepointthrustergoodideanowtothecoilsfirstonedoneherewegouptosecondandthepointsaswelltothebarshegoesOHNO.”  
Bart stopped.  
“DamnheslippedandfellbutithinkhehasmorepointsthanblackcanarydoeshehavemorepointsthanblackcnaryshedidntgetanyofthepointthrustersYESHEDOEScoimeansuperboyisinleveltwo!”  
Cyborg muted the third microphone.

“Damn.” Conner was breathing hard. “I – I didn’t make it.” He swallowed hard, whipping over his face. “I really thought I could-“  
“You did it!” Tim ran towards him jubilant. “You got it! You’re in!” He grabbed Conner by the shoulders.  
“Huh?”

“Awww, look at that.” Cyborg crooned into his microphone that he had wrestled back from Impulse who was dancing off to the side. Beast Boy had joined in. Superboy had finally realized that he just barely scraped into fifth place and was jumping up and own arms wrapped around Red Robin.  
“Cyborg, we had a talk before this.” Oracle warned, her tone mischievous. Lois put another bright red tally for her blackmail theory.  
“Uh right.”  
“Anyway, we are now up to Catwoman – and she knows what to do now.”  
“That only sounds vaguely threatening.” Lois deadpanned.  
“Really? I was going for simply threatening.” Oracle mused. “Guess I have to work on that.”

Selina already knew the best route to take – be quick and ignore the harder point thrusters in the beginning. She winced slightly as one of the handles on the Mag Wall fell off. Not for herself but in sympathy with Dinah. It was an easy mistake to make, rush against the clock, when taking your time was more sensible but seemed more dangerous.  
Of course, Selina had the immense advantage, that she climbed tricky walls all the time. She landed swiftly and silently at the end, looking at the crowd and the commentators to see if her plan had worked.  
Judging by the roar she was in.

Oracle made a show of nodding approvingly. She kept forgetting about her impassive hologram mask not showing her smile.  
“Very good.”  
Beast Boy’s brow furrowed “Uh, who’s that?” He pointed towards the next contestant, outside the camera field.  
“That would be Squire, who is part of Batman Incorporated and works together with Knight in Great Britain.” Alfred explained, a faint note of pride ringing in his voice. “She is a talented young woman, who I believe would have a good chance running against the former Robins, had she chosen to indulge them in their bickering. Which she sensibly did not.”  
“Knight and Squire?” Lois tilted her head, amused. “You guys have problems.”  
Oracle snorted. “Sure, where do you want to start? Parent issues? Parent complexes? How this all ties back to childhood trauma? Because one way or another there’s always something.”  
Oh, Lois was starting to like her. The whole situation was tethering just at the right sight of ridiculous to be entertaining.

“Aw hell!” Beryl hat just a moment to regret her decision to jump early off the wall, the moment she could clearly see that her legs were just short of reaching the landing pad at the end.  
She fell – as one could say – ass over tea kettle into the water.  
Squire pushed herself above the water surface, her head swinging left and right in panic. “Where’s my hat?”

Alfred remained stoic.  
“Oh, that’s the bad face.” Lois crooned.  
Oracle visibly craned her neck from Lois to Alfred and back again. It _was_ the bad face. Rather impressive for Lois to be able to tell when only having been exposed to Alfred for such a short time.

“Still in!” Beryl cheered, holding her soaked hat. “All’s well that ends well!”  
“That didn’t end well!” Jason shouted, heckling his teammate.  
“Oi, shut it mate!”

Courtney flashed the camera a smile and a wink, before performing a backwards cartwheel on the spot.  
“Powers or not,” She began, careful to not direct attention to the fact that her powers came from her staff. “I think I should be doing well here!” She grinned congenially. Courtney knew how these sorts of shows went. There was always some good guys and some bad guys and some weirdly overzealous guys. She wanted to be one of the good ones.  
“Let’s put on a show!”

“Uh.” Lois was trying to glean anything from her co-commentators but was coming up short. “She seems nice?”  
Cyborg jumped in. “Star Girl from the Justice League. She’s got flight and a few other cosmic kinds of powers, not that she’s going to use it. Your All-American Girl-Next-Door.”  
“Good going for a powered down meta.” Oracle said, clearly impressed. “Not the best time we have seen, or the most points, but she’s close to making it in.”  
“At this point all you have to do is get just enough points to beat Black Canary.” Lois looked at the scoreboard. Of course, it still showed Steve Trevor as a competitor to make it to level 2 but only if Star Girl and the next contestant both failed spectacularly.  
“Perhaps one should keep in mind that all feats currently shown here are at a level that is above the usual, even for athletes competing at this challenge.” Alfred cut in smoothly.  
The other grimaced at the reminder.  
Alfred continued. “I can think of a few episodes where Steve Trevor would have advanced.” He had after all done his due diligence in preparing for the show.  
Oracle coughed and then punched Cyborg in the thigh.  
“Oh – oh right, Star Girl! She’s at Mag Wall, and only a few more steps to go, so she can get into level two. Skips right past the point thrusters – and there she goes!”  
A loud cry could be heard from the crowd.  
“ALRIGHT!”  
Cyborg grinned. “At least Flash is still here to cheer her on.”

Wally zipped over to Courtney, relieved to not have to hold back his speed anymore.  
“Awesome!” He high fived her with blinding speed. She looked at him shocked – understandable, they usually didn’t hang out much. Maybe Wally should try to branch out a bit more.

“Last up for the Titans, and still can’t believe we went with her, but Nightwing insisted – it’s Ravager!” Beast Boy hollered, his voice dipping an octave deeper as he announced her name.  
“She’s looking heroic.” Lois’ words were dripping in sarcasm.  
Cyborg let out a bark of laughter. “I’m pretty sure she’s just trying to look like her dad so she can flip him off.”  
“She hot though.” Beast Boy cut in.  
Oracle groaned. “Boys.”

“C’mon Ravager.” Dick whined as Rose got did her last stretches. “You sure that’s how you want to do it?”  
“Yes, I’m sure. I’m not a show-off like you.”  
He raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her. “Uh-huh.”  
“That was one time!” She snapped back, standing up straight.  
“Do you even know what time I was thinking about?” He asked, voice full of good humor.  
Rose grimaced. “No. Still, shut it, I’m doing this my way.”  
“Alright, alright – go get it.”

Rose climbed up the rope and hit the first point thruster. She had the endurance and she needed the points – why had nobody else gone for them? Aside from Jason anyway.  
She jumped on the coil and grabbed for the pole in the middle, not quite as balanced as she would have liked. Her lips pursed as she remembered the way Dick had practically flown through the stage. Maybe she could ask him to go through a few routines after this was over. Might be good practice.  
Timing the next jump, she got the second point thruster. Only a few more obstacles and she would tie with Superboy for points.

“She’s doing good.” Oracle said approvingly. “Collecting those points where she can. They won’t matter in level two, but she’s clearly got a goal in mind right now.”  
“She is almost where Master Superboy fell off.” Alfred commented idly. “At which point, even when she ties with him, she will advance.”  
Just then Ravager reached the last bar, that Superboy had slipped from. She swung slightly, losing her momentum and then took one hand of the bar to shoot the crowd a two fingered salute.  
She let go.  
“Tactical.” Lois nodded.

“After completing level one, we remain with eight competitors who will be advancing to level two. Eliminated were the Flash, with the lowest points, as he could not complete the Gear Head obstacle. Next are both civilian contestants who failed at Face Plant, which I would again like to remind you, is the biggest obstacle in level one in any regular episode. Lastly Black Canary of the Birds of Prey is cut from the competition, due to an unfortunate accident at the Mag Wall.”  
(“I can’t believe you managed to say all of that with a straight face.”  
“Miss Gordon, I pride myself on my straight face. I assume it would be more shocking if it had been otherwise.”)


	2. Round 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go with Round 2, since of course this madness isn't over quite yet.

Star Girl’s smile was perfect, bright and sunny, but not big enough to look fake. Hearing Flash cheer her on from the sidelines had lifted some of the strain from it. Being supported by somebody aside from Stripe – by a big-deal like the Flash, none the less – practically lifted her from the ground. Nearly as good as the feeling of flying.  
“- it’s too bad that the other teams all snatched up the good competitors, but I guess we lucked out with you – yeah, they think just because we have powers, that we don’t know the value of hard work, but it’s hard working with powers too, right? I mean you have powers, so you must know –“

Dick slung an arm around Rose’s shoulders.  
“I don’t agree with your sportsmanship.” He said lightly. “But your cutthroat tactics? I have to respect that.” He turned his face to grin at her. Rose allowed the tugging on her lips to become a small smile.  
“_You_ were the one who taught me, you can’t complain about my sportsmanship now.”  
“I taught you how to fight.” He reminded her, squeezing her shoulders. It was only because of that, that Rose seemed to shuffle closer into the hug. “You take any opportunity when you fight.”  
“Never fight fair.” Rose cited. Dick hadn’t been the only one to teach her this lesson. His way had only been nicer.

“Level two consists of seven different challenges. First the contestants start in the  
Drops Zone – where they must jump into a trampoline and out of it to reach the  
Pivot Point – which consists of a ten feet drop, straight down.  
Digestive Track – is up next, a tube that sinks into the water as soon as the competitors are inside. Once they have crawled through it they get to  
Treadmills – a pair of treadmills suspended in the air. Crossing both, the competitors have a small moment of respite before going on to  
Shapeshifter – a ravine with small holds at the side that they must cross using their feet and hand strategically.  
Destabilizer – the last obstacle of level two, series of bars that drop shortly after the contestants have touched them. Here speed is of the essence.  
Eight contestants are now remaining, and only four will make it to the next level. First up is Superboy, who has just inched his way into level two.”

“You can do this.” Tim looked him square in the eye – or at least Conner assumed so. He was wearing his cowl after all. “Just remember that you are going to get tired more easily right now.”  
Conner nodded. “I don’t know how you do it – I couldn’t even hang on back on that bar, I don’t know how I’m supposed to get through the last thing quickly.” He grimaced.  
“One step at a time.” Tim shook his head. “Don’t think about what others are going to do – you must create your own strategy for what you can do best.”  
“Right.” Conner nodded. “The point thrusters are late, and I won’t be quick enough for the mega point thruster anyway. If I’m sinking too quickly inside the tube, I just need to touch the next treadmill to get points. Focus on that.”  
Tim grinned proudly. “Good – now go out there and do it!”

Lois hummed, playing with her hair. Superboy was jumping up and down, pumping himself up.  
“I wonder if he’s ever been exhausted before.”  
“Doesn’t matter how super you get – holding up a whole building is hard.” Cyborg admonished. “I guess it’s new for him to be tired already, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know about it. Or that he doesn’t know how to push past it.”  
Lois perked up. Cyborg’s one eye was heavy set. “Superboy has a lot of muscle mass and knows how to use it – he does train with other metas after all. But here it’s going to be his biggest problem as well – it makes him heavier, and he’s already had a hard time because of it.”

Conner eyed the distance between himself and the trampoline – and then between the trampoline and the landing pad. It wasn’t hard to guess where he had to jump, the beastmaster logo printed clearly white on black, in the middle of the black fabric.  
The angle was ideal, as long as he got a running start.   
Trampoline, then there would be a drop down – then the tube. Conner’s eyes furrowed, remembering what he had just discussed with Tim. He feared that he wouldn’t get through the tube quickly enough, at least not to then properly jump off. No problem for him normally, but something to keep in mind for now.  
He shook himself. One step at a time.

“C’mon.” Tim murmured. Most teams had both competitors go on to the next level, since both Steve Trevor and Amanda Waller had taken a dive early on.  
“He’s looking confident.” Selina wasn’t looking at Conner. She was surveying the course as a whole.  
“He isn’t, but thank you.” Tim rolled his eyes, even though she couldn’t see it. Selina shrugged and inspected her metal nails that where attached to her gloves. Probably thinking about how they could help or hinder her.  
“Are you here for him, or he for you?” She finally asked, with blunt disinterest.  
Tim shifted uncomfortable. But Selina was on their side right now – had been on their side from time to time, and on a whole, being a thief was an almost normal career for a born and bred Gothamite like her. The only thing that made her stand out were her exceptional skills and her gimmick.  
“Bit of both.” Tim answered honestly.

Conner heard the buzzer and ran forward. He jumped – a bit too early, but there was no need to accidently go over the edge. Small mistakes.  
As he was in the air, Conner could almost feel his blood freeze.  
The trampoline was approaching, but it was approaching _wrong_.  
_Conner_ was approaching it wrong.  
He tried to lift himself forwards in the air as usual but found that he couldn’t.

“Oh – I want to say that he forgot his strength right there, but I think it’s more the other way around.” Lois shouted, just as Superboy landed.  
The landing was awkward – one leg defiantly pushed on the edge of the logo, the other close to the frame of the trampoline.  
“Keepyourbalance!” Impulse shouted, loud enough that another microphone picked it up.  
Superboy had his arms to the sides, not gracefully or balance, but an act of pure instinct. Hanging there, lifted slightly too much and too little, unbalancing him even further.  
The trampoline sunk in and for a second Superboy tried his best to shift himself.  
He didn’t know where he had to go.  
The trampoline sprang back, spitting Superboy out almost horizontally. He hadn’t bent his knees, standing stiffly and went only far enough to drop into the water like a board.

“Aw, that’s too bad.” Beast Boy whined sympathetically, while the others flinched at the colossal splash of water.  
“Well, now everyone else knows how _not_ to do that one.” Lois tilted her head. “The first runners seem to have a bit of a problem with that.”  
Beast Boy’s nose crinkled. “No offense, but _dude_. Judging jump distance with different powers levels is _hard_. Ever tried jumping the exact same distance as a lion and a kangaroo? Not as easy as it looks.”  
Lois stared at him dumbfounded.

“Man, I know how he feels.” Wally sighed as he looked towards Conner. Tim was by his side – it was hard to say whether he was consoling him or not, body language painfully neutral. Then again if Tim wasn’t comforting Conner, he wouldn’t stand beside him, just after having fallen at the first obstacle.  
“I’m glad I’m keeping up with cheerleading.” Courtney murmured, looking at the trampoline.  
Wally blinked, looking back to his teammate. “Huh? Cheerleading?”  
“Oh – sorry about that. Something I do at school, started it before this whole thing.” She blushed – they weren’t supposed to say anything that could lead back to their identities. “It’s fun.”  
“No wonder you are this good!” Wally’s face light up. “Cheerleaders are badass.” He had a deep respect for flips and tumbles of all kinds – he had been on a team with Dick after all. Getting a cartwheel kick to the face hurt, even in training.  
“Thanks.“ Wally was a lot easier to talk to than Courtney had thought. The title of Flash was a bit more intimidating then her own legacy after all.  
“Alright, now go out and kick butt!”

“Next up, Star Girl again.” Cyborg’s excitement fell flat. He was trying though.  
Lois shook her head. “It’s weird – you’d think that being a superhero would mean everybody knows your name. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Star Girl before.”  
“Not cool!” Beast Boy cried.  
“She is doing good work.” Oracle cut in. “Not only here but out on the field as well.”  
Lois hummed. How many superheroes where even out there? Was there some sort of official or unofficial list lying around? She was almost itching to go and find Amanda Waller to try and get it out of her.

Courtney jumped right in the middle of the trampoline, bending her knees and was catapulted right out of it. Nothing she hadn’t done with the other girls on her cheer team a thousand times. It was almost no effort at all – only bracing at the right moment.  
Routine nothing more.  
“Oh jeez.” She muttered as she looked down at the drop that was up next. Ten feet wasn’t too shabby – but she was used to more. Then again, normally she could _fly_ but Stripe had insisted on her learning a few falling techniques anyhow. Just in case.  
Taking another deep breath before exhaling slowly, Courtney calmed herself down.  
She jumped.  
Not too far, not too short, she wanted to land just right in the middle. First straight legs, then bending just as she hit the platform.  
The ground underneath her shifted, and she could feel herself wobbling.  
“God da-“  
She threw herself backwards.

“Ouch!” Wally winced as Courtney’s back hit the platform. Dinah however nodded approvingly beside him.  
“She didn’t stick the landing, but it was a good safe.”  
“Good safe?” Wally looked at her incredulous. “That must have hurt!”  
Dinah shrugged. “Sure. But any other way she could have gone, and she would have rolled right off the platform.”  
“I guess..?” Wally looked back at to the course lost. He was glad he wasn’t in the competition anymore. Cheering others on was far more fun and easier.

Courtney huffed as she got up again. Her shoulder blades hurt, but not too bad. She wouldn’t need her back muscles for a little while though, so it should be fine.  
Jumping towards the tube she grit her teeth. She wanted to win this!

“Almost right back up, and Star Girl is crawling through Digestive Track!” Cyborg cheered, leaning forward to get a better view. “She’s already all the way through, with a good high jumping point to get to the first treadmill!”  
Oracle hummed, appreciative. “Very well done – and she really sticks the landing.”

Courtney ran lightly on the treadmill, jerking forward and backwards a bit, as it moved from the momentum of her landing. The next treadmill was a bit sideways over – she could jump over to it but decided to take moment longer.  
Running up the treadmill she slowly dragged the next one closer to herself.

“She’s going a bit slow there.” Lois frowned as Star Girl made her way along the treadmills slowly.  
“She is showing restraint and using good technique to advance.” Alfred corrected gently. “She will not get the best time, but it is showing great forethought to not simply rush.”  
Oracle nodded. “She’s tiring herself out a bit, but she’s also not hurting herself by jumping into danger. Pros and cons to everything.”  
Lois snorted, practically seeing Red Hood belly flopping from one treadmill to another already.

Courtney wheezed as she reached the small platform between obstacles. Next up was the strange body bridge stretching before her. Her legs and arms were aching, put still limber from the stretches Wally did with her in the break between levels.

“She’s off – there’s the speed we’ve been missing!” Cyborg clapped his hands in excitement.  
“She won’t make it.”  
Lois turned to Oracle surprised. Her tone was cold and calculating.  
“She’s trying to get to the point thruster, she knows she can’t go any further than that.” Oracle intertwined her fingers. “Look at her face, her body language. She’s pushing herself yes, but she knows where her limits are.”  
Just as Oracle finished speaking, Star Girl pushed herself off with her hands, just enough that she could kick backwards at the point thruster. She missed it, ever so slightly.

“Damn it.” Rose seethed. She was glaring at the trampoline as she waited for her signal to start. Going third of eight contestants was bad enough already – but Conner hadn’t shown her anything valuable from the course and Courtney’s approach had been too timid for Rose.  
She would have to figure this out herself.  
Dick had tried to help her of course – but his advice was _too_ good. Rose could never pull off what he had said.  
With sharp exhale and a wordless yell Rose launched herself forward.

“Jesus, what in the world did you tell that girl?” Jason brought his arm up to lean against Dick’s shoulder. It was a bit uncomfortable, but anything to remind his older brother who the taller one was.  
“Not that.” Dick murmured, worrying his lips. “She’s too aggressive.”  
They both winced as Rose took a hard fall. She had a minor healing factor that was handwaved for the competition, so she should be good.  
Jason frowned behind his mask, shifting to take pressure off his ribs.  
So far only Courtney had had to climb through the tube. Considering how Rose slipped she had made it look easy.  
“Too angry.” Jason muttered, taking his own mental notes. He had a bit of a temper himself – not that he would ever admit it to anyone’s face – so it was something to watch out for.  
Finally, Rose made it to the top of the tube.

Rose was seething. The inside of the damn tube had been wet with barely any handhold. Even pressing against the sides to wedge herself in had been hard, due to her armor. The first treadmill was almost above her shoulder level already.  
Barely taking any time to steady herself Rose shot forwards.  
She didn’t land on the treadmill itself, barely clinging to its sides. Rose grit her teeth, as she tried to bring her upper body over the edge – but was stopped by the treadmill that was trying to push her off. It wasn’t a great force, nothing she couldn’t handle, but without any foot hold it was hard to overcome.

“Swing your leg over!” Dick yelled, despite the distance. 

Rose kicked with her legs, trying to create even the smallest upward momentum to get over the edge. She was nearly-  
She huffed as she slid right off it again, fingers tiering.

“Not looking too good.” Beast Boy was swaying back and forth. “C’mon Ravager!”  
Ravager let out a yell and tried one more time. Body lurched upwards, legs straight and swinging back to bring her upper body forwards.  
“YE – NOOO!”

Courtney blinked shocked. Rose hadn’t been able to clear it?  
“Aw man.” Wally sighed. He was feeling every triumph and every loss. “Good for you, but –“ He made a quick hand movement. “Too bad for her.”

“The jumping point is proving to be pivotal.” Alfred observed. “Squire too will face the same challenge.”  
“They are all the same height aren’t they.” Lois’ eyes darted between the three heroes, that were now gathered with the rest of the crowd. Nightwing was talking to a frustrated Ravager. “Even similar body type.”  
That was somewhat eerie.  
“Hm. They are all fit.” Oracle conceded. “But they are still different. Star Girl doesn’t have as much bulk, since she usually doesn’t need to win through brute force.”  
“And Ravager looks like that is her favourite way to beat someone up.” Lois agreed.  
Beast Boy groaned. “Yeah, really funny until you’ve got to spar against her. She _never_ pulls her punches.”

Beryl was lucky – she had been standing close to Dick, Jason and Tim during the last couple of runs. While Jason and Tim were trying to figure out how to run the course, Dick had practically been shouting instructions the entire time.  
Drop Zone and Pivot Point were both laughably easy when compared to the gymnastics she was usually doing while simultaneously chasing down bad guys. Digestive Track however was intimidating.

“She’s careful.” Louis hummed. “There are already enough people with pretty low points that she doesn’t need to worry about time, I guess.” The rules were steadily becoming clearer to her.  
“Superboy definitely.” Oracle agreed. “But Ravager might make it, depending on the others.”  
Lois thought about it.  
“Slim chance.” She finally landed on. “But it’s still there I guess.”  
“Miss Squire is continuing onwards.” Alfred’s voice broke Lois out of her thoughts.  
“My, is that cheer I’m hearing?” She grinned. “That’s almost an actual emotion.”  
Oracle snorted beside her. Oh, Lois and Alfred would have a wonderful friendship, if only they knew each other better. Good thing they didn’t.

“Got’cha!” Beryl crowed as her head popped out of the tube. Just like climbing a chimney in the rain!  
Taking the time to steady herself she jumped off and landed on the treadmill, almost square in the center. She kept her center of gravity low, and awkwardly crab walked to stay in place, until the treadmill stopped swinging around too much.  
A short sprint and she jumped unto the next one.

“And she’s done with Treadmills!” Cyborg nodded impressed. “That almost looked easy.”  
“You think you could do that?” Beast Boy turned to him.  
“Hell no, do you think I can squeeze these shoulders into a tube like that? I would sink like a stone.”  
Beast Boy cackled at Cyborg’s hidden pun.

Beryl was starting to get suspicious. Oh, the obstacles weren’t _easy_, but they weren’t that hard either. She looked up from where she was hanging between the grips of Shapeshifter to glare at the point thruster.  
It was too far away for her to reach.

“She’s skipping the point thrusters.” Lois frowned. “She must have a bit more energy left then.”  
“She’s doing good.” Oracle agreed. “And she’s almost at the end. Last obstacle right now is Destabilizer.”

Beryl shook herself, tapping light-footed on the spot as she stood on the small platform before the last task.  
“’ere we go!”  
She jumped and grabbed the first bar, then grabbed the second – the first was already falling – third, fourth-

“They must have nicer architecture in Great Britain than in Gotham.” Cyborg observed with a grin as Beryl swam back to land, from where she had fallen in. “She doesn’t seem used to things falling apart all the time.”

“Alright, good luck.” Jason put his hand on Tim’s shoulder. Tim tilted his head at it, the next best thing he could do instead of raising an eyebrow.  
“What are you up to?” Conner crossed his arms, puffing himself up slightly.  
Jason took his hand back, shrugging. “Relax, you don’t have to worry, you’re already out aren’t you?”  
“What’s your angle here?” Tim looked at the camera operator who was winking him over from a safe distance.  
“Squire’s doing pretty good – you won’t be able to get to the top, but it might be nice to have an all Bat semi finale, right?” Jason’s voice was genuinely teasing for once, without its usual bite.  
Tim’s lips twitched ever so slightly, and he nodded.

“ComeonRedRobinyougottagetusbackinthegameforSuperboyssake!”  
“I get that you should let him talk to,” Lois leaned away from Impulse again. “But you have to admit, it would be kind of nice Red Robin fell into the water as well.”

Tim observed the Shapeshifter obstacle carefully. He was already a bit winded from climbing through the tube, without any immediate respite due to the treadmills afterwards. He was the fifth contestant, and only four would advance – it was simple math to see where he needed to be, to get further. He didn’t even have to finish Shapeshifter, he had to hit the power thruster that was located between the two sections. Getting even to the second part of Shapeshifter would give him the points he needed to progress, but the point thruster would cement it.  
The big part was to already plan his route towards the point thruster, so that he wouldn’t be in a bad spot when trying to hit it.

“What is he waiting for?” Jason muttered under his breath; brows creased.

“Andfinallyheisgoing!Thatwaslongthatwasntjustmehewasstandingthereforalongtimeright?” Impulse stopped and looked at Beast Boy, who was closest to him.  
Beast Boy blinked back.  
“Wha’?”  
“He is taking his time.” Lois narrowed her eyes. “But you can see what he did – he’s going for the point thruster, but he’s going to be smart about it.”

Tim lightly shifted his weight, checking that he wouldn’t fall when he lifted his arm off the grip. The position was predictably awkward, but the math was on his side. 

“Hesgotit!” Impulse cheered, grabbing Beast Boy by the shoulder.  
“He’s going to advance.” Alfred said, his voice warm.  
“Ah, somebody is proud.” Lois grinned. “I thought you didn’t endorse the bickering?”  
Alfred didn’t sniff at her comment – if he had been a sniffing person he might have. “It is simply good to see a young hero like Red Robin use his intellect to overcome physical obstacles.”  
“Oh, you’re a softie.” Oracle chuckled.

Tim considered the mega point thruster at the end of Shapeshifter. There were still 22 points on it, ticking down by the second. He was already in level three.  
Tim considered it for another moment as 19 become 18. Then he kicked out.

“He’s pulling the same move as Star Girl!” Cyborg shouted. “But he’s got it!”  
“Ohnohesfallinghefalling.”  
Lois shrugged, just as Red Robin hit the water.  
“Points only matter for the order they will go in on level three, and he clearly went out on his own terms.” It wasn’t as fun when they went out on their own terms.   
“Only question remains is who will join him.”

“You sure you don’t want to switch?” Dinah asked once more. “We should be roughly the same size.”  
Selina stretched down to her toes. “No, yours are bigger than mine, and I will be fine.” She turned her head and grinned up at Dinah. She was looking frustrated.  
“Besides these are the lowest heels I have.” Selina stretched back up again. “And your shoes haven’t exactly been lucky so far.”  
At this Dinah rolled her eyes, going from frustrated to annoyed. “Well good luck then. You’re going to need it.”  
“Birdy, I have all the luck that I need.” Selina said, voice warm and sultry before sashaying off. 

“Catwoman was doing good.” Oracle was leaning forwards, and Lois could almost imagine the tense face beneath the hologram. “Something is throwing her off with the treadmill though.”  
It was true – Catwoman had easily made both of the jumps in the beginning and the crawl was almost _too_ easy for her. She was stumbling along the first treadmill, however.  
“That treadmill is slowing down a bit, when she puts more weight on it.” Cyborg murmured, looking at something on his arm.  
“Wait really?” Lois craned her neck to see for herself.  
Oracle hummed. “It’s only a little bit, but it’s enough to throw Catwoman’s balance off slightly.”  
Catwoman suddenly let herself be rolled backwards before running to take a leap.  
“Oh, that’s a bad idea!” Lois shouted, surging forward.

Selina jumped, and as she did, the treadmill under her was pushed backwards. Simple physics but damning all the same.  
Her hands shot forward to grab the next treadmill, but the claws on her gloves easily ripped through the padding on the side.

“Down she goes.” Lois sing-songed. “Who’s going to replace that treadmill?” She turned to Oracle and Alfred. Alfred once again had his hand on Oracle’s shoulder.  
“Perhaps you would like to pick somebody from Gotham to cheer on?” Alfred suggested calmly.

“I can’t believe Hood beat you out last round.” Rose grunted as Dick was still lightly stretching out his shoulders.   
“I wasn’t concentrating on beating him.” Dick reminded her. She snorted.  
“No, you were concentrating on showing off.”   
He flashed her a bright grin in response. “Still, second place is enough until the finals.” He looked over at his brother, who was doing some small exercises, too keep his muscles from locking up. “Then I won’t _just_ be showing off.”

“Alright, and here comes Nightwing.” Lois cracked her own neck. “This is going to be fun.”  
“Aw, he can’t show off as much here.” Beast Boy whined, as he took a closer look at the obstacles again.  
“Really?” Lois looked at him. “With Shapeshifter and Destabilizer at the end?” She huffed. “I can’t wait to see what he does there.”

Dick lightly tapped his right foot forward, arms at the side, ready to jump into action the moment his buzzer went off.  
As the sound came took two running steps forward – just enough to get going – and jumped into the trampoline. As he jumped out of it, he ran the moment his feet touched the landing pad and then jumped to the platform below.  
Legs straight, hitting the small target just slightly off center with his heels, he rolled off his feet to lunge forward.

“That looks so smooth!” Beast Boy cried as Nightwing seemingly got squashed as he landed at the bottom of Pivot Point and dived straight into the tube, taking all the moment he got from the trampoline with him.  
“He looks like somebody threw a black and blue slinky down a staircase.” Lois looked torn between disturbed and intrigued.  
Nightwing was already at the end of the tube, and with his speed it seemed to not have sunken at all.  
He jumped to the first treadmill, to the second and to the landing pad. While the suspended obstacles did move quite a bit, Nightwing seemed to be in perfect control of his balance all the while.

Dick had already studied the grips of Shapeshifter during the other runs – if he had been the first to go, it would have been more difficult. But thanks to the others, especially Tim, he already knew what to do.

“That’s -“ Rose began, unsure what she was feeling as she saw Dick contort his way through Shapeshifter. “That’s almost gross.” She sounded astonished.  
Dick was winding his way through Shapeshifter, crossing his arms and legs over where he shouldn’t have been able too, never once stopping to balance or check his grip.  
It was almost anticlimactic as he reached his hand out to get the first point thruster, seemingly dislocating his shoulder as he did.  
Rose, Tim and Conner that had all huddled around flinched in sympathy.  
“Your brother is crazy.” Conner said faintly. 

Dick hit the mega point thruster that still had 27 points on it and a guilty apology flashed through his mind. He should do some exercises with Rose and Tim both – it was easy to see how much it grated on Tim that he had to lose at certain points in this race, simply because his height was working against him.

“Nightwing is up to Destabilizer. Considering what he did at the last set of bars he was let loose on, I can’t wait to see what he does here.” Lois grinned sharply.

Dick paused for the briefest of moments – there were two way to do this. For one moment he thought about doing it the sensible way, but then he remembered what he had told Rose just a few minutes before.  
Dick jumped to the first bar and swung forwards. Any second the bar would fall.  
He let go of it, just in time that it wouldn’t throw him off course and hooked his toes over the fourth bar over. He flipped and tucked to generate more speed. Just in time he raised his feet, nearly not visible to anybody who looked, but enough that he was in free fall again.  
He grabbed the second to last bar, kicked forwards with straight legs just like on a trapeze and jumped towards the end.

“Okay, so technically the ex-Robin competition is still going.” Lois began slowly. “But when it comes to gymnastics, I’m pretty sure there’s no point in asking who the best is.”  
Alfred coughed. “Perhaps it would be best to wait for Master Red Hood to finish the course, before making any such claims.”

“Go Hood, you can do it!” Beryl screeched over the rest of the cheering as Jason made his way forward.  
Courtney looked a bit nervous. Wally was yelling wordless cheers, whooping and hollering, before seeing the trepidation on her face.  
“Aw, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” He quickly caught on.  
She shrugged, still unsure. “I get it, you just want him to do well.”  
“I kind of want everyone to do well.” Wally rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess I want him to do well, but just not enough to not beat you out?”  
Courtney sighed. “He’s the Red Hood. No way is my score going to beat him.”  
“Don’t be like that!” Wall threw an arm around her shoulders. “Positive attitude, right? You did your best, and that was already way better than mine and a lot of others.”

Jason had done the Drop Zone and Pivot Point easily enough, but now he was eyeing Digestive Track – the damn tube – with narrowed eyes. Dick had made it look easy. Of course, he had, he had also made it look like it was natural to drop ten feet and then roll off the balls of your feet.  
Rose’s problem had come from her armor, not her size. The only other contestant who would have had the same problems as him, simply due to their shoulders, would have been Conner. Conner, who had dropped out almost immediately, so that Jason had no way of observing him at this obstacle.  
Huffing he decided to simply have a go at it.

“And Red Hood is in the Digestive Track!” Oracle announced. “Honestly the only part of the Beast that makes sense in context.”  
She stopped for a moment.  
“He – he seems to be having troubles with getting through it.”  
Down on the course Red Hood was once again sliding down the tube, hunched over to fit into it in the first place. The water was almost lapping at his feet.  
“Oh no.” Alfred shoulder’s tensed.  
Red Hood awkwardly jumped forward, before slipping enough that his legs up to his knees were under water.

“Oh damn!” Tim shouted aghast.  
“What?” Dick’s mouth was wide open.  
“Oops.” Ravager grinned. She had made it further than the Red Hood!

“And that was it for level two!” Lois looked away from the camera to Alfred and Oracle, who had a hand on each other’s shoulder and hip respectively. “We are down four more contestants, with no complete team advancing to level three.”  
She lowered her microphone, giving the two of them a moment of silence.


	3. Round 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Level 3 and I am getting to my limit on how to describe people moving fast. Or just moving in general.

„Next up is level three, and we have now abandoned all pretense that this is supposed to take place ‘inside’ a Beast. This level is called Energy Pyramid-“  
(_”Well they went through the Beast’s stomach – what if it’s, y’know, the Beast’s po-“_)  
And the competitors are going up against the following obstacles:  
Railrunner – here they jump on a fast treadmill, where they must jump off at the end to grab two ropes. Riding the ropes in a roundabout, changing once in the middle, they arrive at  
Power Surge – first there are vertical bars they have to traverse through and then an old obstacle, Coil Crawl, which is a few hoops and chains that steadily sink into the water, was lifted and reinstated here. This is also where the mega point thruster is.  
Vortex Climb – looks absolutely ridiculous. Contestant climb up a spiral that takes 80 feet to complete. This entire level is extremely hard on the arms because next up is  
Pipeline – if they somehow manage to complete Viper Climb, they next have to grab hold of two handles mounted on bars and scooch upwards to get to the last obstacle:  
Climbing Wall – this is, as the name suggests, a climbing wall. I don’t know what else to say, that’s literally all it is.  
We have four contestants left, and only two will go on to the next round.

“How are you supposed to get on that thing anyway?” Courtney looked at the large conveyer belt in the distance with trepidation.  
“I would tell you to just run – but yeah, maybe I’m not the best person to ask.” Wally grimaced. Courtney was up first, and she didn’t know what to do.  
“Try to lower yourself facing the other direction.” A voice called out from behind them. “Run a bit against it, until you feel comfortable and turn around _slowly_. You need to really use the last few feet to get as much momentum before you jump off. Otherwise you’ll have a hard time going all the way around.”  
Steve Trevor shrugged, an amiable smile on his face.  
“But I didn’t make it to level three either, so you might not want to listen to me.”

“Star Girl is up, and I have to admit I didn’t expect her to make it this far.” Lois watched the cheerful girl wink at the camera as she made her way to the start.  
“I didn’t expect anything of her.” She decided to clarify. “I wonder how’s she going to try and tackle the first obstacle, because that looks just – when exactly do you need this sort of thing?”  
“In Gotham? A lot.” Oracle chuckled. “It’s about getting your balance back quickly. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem for most of these guys.”

Courtney already got in position, before the sound even came. The conveyer belt was too short and too long at the same time – too short to forgive any mistakes, and just long enough that she might make some.  
Wally was cheering her on from the side, Steve Trevor as well. Everybody was cheering her on, even her competitors.

“She’s doing it” Steve cheered, as Courtney was using his tactic to get on the belt. She looked wobbly, but she hadn’t fallen.  
Wally whooped, drowning out all the others. “Run, Star, run!”

Courtney bit her lip as she was racing along the track with the rope gripped tightly. She really wished there would be another obstacle where she needed her legs more than her arms. She had stronger muscles in her legs than her arms!  
But she had to get through this.  
She ignored the point thruster, passing it by before she even realized it was there. Only her instincts from flying allowed her to quickly change from the first rope to the second one, barely losing her speed at all.

“Man, Star Girl is flying through this thing!” Beast Boy cheered. Down on the ground somebody was leading a few others into a chant.  
“She already past Railrunner and nearly done with the first part of Power Surge!”

The part that motivated Courtney to get through the hanging bars was that she could use her legs to climb when it came to the next part of the obstacle.  
“Thank god.” She groaned, as she slung her legs around one of the bars of the strange ring-bar concoction. She wanted to stop, she wanted to rest – normally she could simply fly a little bit away, to catch her breath. No chance here. If she stopped, she would be stopping for good, so she kept going.

“She’s got the point thruster with a whole 18 points on them!” Cyborg was obviously impressed. “That’s pretty good – that _is_ pretty good?” He turned to Oracle and Alfred.  
“Very much so.” Alfred assured him.

Courtney took in a deep breath as she rested for only a second, a short moment in time, there and gone again, on the last ring of Power Surge.  
She was done. She was nearly done. Not with the level but with what little power she had left.  
The moment of rest but brief, but as she jumped towards the blue spiral, she could feel her strength draining away. She put one hand forward then the other, and slowly made her way up.

“She’s slowing down now.” Cyborg frowned. “But the level is really hard – forget about the other two levels, level three is so heavy on your arms and upper body muscles, anybody would be feeling the strain now.”  
“She hasn’t given up so far.” Lois was getting pumped up. “She might not finish it, but she could get the point thruster!”

Courtney grit her teeth. She wanted to let go. At this moment, the rest didn’t really matter.

“And down she goes!” Lois sighed. “I was starting too really root for her. Girl could have made it far!”

Wally sped over to where Courtney was climbing out of the water, sputtering all the while.  
“You did great!” He shouted, hugging her, as she was still trying to catch her breath. “That was so awesome! The way you zoomed all the way around, and you went through those bars so quickly-“  
Courtney grinned as Wally chattered on.

„Squire’s not looking too happy with the conveyer belt right in front of her.” Lois said, schadenfreude in her voice.  
“Well, she might be a bat but she isn’t from Gotham.” Cyborg reminded her. “If she’s having trouble with it, then that’s why.”

Beryl decided to go with the same tactic she had used on the treadmills in level two – jump on it, get her balance by staying low. As the buzzer sounded, she moved forwards.  
“Woah nelly!” Her arms flayed about, as she tried to keep her balance. This conveyer belt was _way_ faster than the treadmills from before!  
“Bloody hell!” She crashed down, right on her tailbone.

“Oh, that one hurt!” Cyborg winced in half-forgotten sympathy.  
Alfred frowned. “Miss Squire needs to act quickly now!”

Beryl got up again, taking a few quick steps back – she was nearly at the end of the conveyer belt already.  
Her eyes darted between the edge of the conveyer belt and the rope she had to grab next. Inching slowly forward while walking backwards, Beryl started to crouch down. It was slow going, but she was getting to a point where she could jump off safely.

“God damn it, get a running start!” Jason yelled. “You’re going to hang there like a fish!”  
“You’re getting into this all of a sudden.” Tim grinned and quickly darted away to a safe distance, as Jason turned his head to him.  
“Shut it – you’re going to get shot out right off that treadmill the second you get on, featherweight!”

Beryl jumped up, grabbing a hold of the ropes, swinging her legs to get some momentum. The rolls threaded on the metal railing cracked in protest as she was propelled forwards. She bared her teeth in frustration, once again swinging back and forth, just as she was about to reach the halfway point. She had to change ropes here.

“I knew it!” Jason seethed, as Beryl grabbed the second pair of ropes. She was hanging in there, swinging and using absolutely everything to try and inch forwards.  
He shot his younger brother a reproachful look.  
“Don’t you dare.”  
Tim raised an eyebrow at him. He knew that Jason could tell, even with his cowl in the way. They all knew how to read hidden expressions.  
“I didn’t say anything?”  
Jason hissed and turned away again,

Beryl huffed as she switched from the rope she had been clinging to, to the bright blue bars hanging like a carrousel from the rigging up top. Scooching along with the rope had taken far more energy than she would have liked, and there was no respite for her arms to be seen. Never mind that she had had to skip the point thruster entirely.  
She gripped on the bar, holding herself up with shaky arms. She needed to put some of the weight on her legs, if only for a brief respite. Climbing up slightly, she flung her legs around the plastic pole, holding herself up in the air.

“Squire is taking a moment to breathe –“  
“Ooooh, dang!” Beast Boy shouted, interrupting Oracle. “She’s slipping!”  
Oracle’s hand shot up, a few inches away from Alfred’s arm.  
A shriek rang out across the plane, followed by a wince of sympathy from the crowd.

„So – Nightwing or Red Robin?” Dinah looked between Dick and Tim.  
Selina hummed. “Is that really a question?” She rose a suggestive eyebrow.  
“_Not_ what I meant.” Dinah said sharply and then sighed. “Besides we know who would win that one.  
“So, Nightwing or Red Robin – who do you think will win here?” Dinah was honestly curious, what Selina’s no doubt biased opinion would be.  
“I know that you are not that familiar with them, but there is no way for Nightwing to lose this.”  
“Well.” Dinah inclined her head. “Nightwing might _win_ this round, but in the long run? Red Robin has been thinking ahead since the start.”  
“Ha!” Selina barked out. “Nightwing doesn’t pace himself, he never did – but this course is barely scratching an itch for him.” She grinned sharply. “I’ve known blue bird since he wore a speedo out to fight crime. I’m telling you he’s going to do it.”  
Dinah grinned right back. “Care to bet on that?

“What exactly would you have that could interest me?” Selina’s voice was both flippant and curious. Maybe Dinah could surprise her.  
“Not much.” Dinah said honestly. “And I would rather not trade favours over this – but there is something I would like to see.”  
Her grin turned sharp and mean.  
“Waller’s still here – I think one of us should congratulate her on a job well done.”  
Selina’s eyes sparkled. “Deal.”

Tim landed with both feet hitting the conveyer belt at the same time. Beryl hadn’t – which had taken away her momentum for the rest of the entire run. He probably couldn’t get much further than Courtney did – but he could get there faster, which he desperately needed to.  
Dick was going to come in first, so Tim had to come in second. The most important part – the real race – would come in level four by choosing a better route then Dick. Dick, who lived and breathed acrobatics and parkour like air. Dick who was also prone to showing off and could be hot-headed if goaded.

“Red Robin is on his way around the Pyramid!” Cyborg shouted, trying to be heard over Impulse’s chattering. “He’s trying for the point thruster and barely misses it!”  
“That could have been important.” Lois frowned. “Now he’s basically on the same track as everybody before him – if he wants to win this, he needs to get to where Star Girl was and get there quicker.”

“C’mon Rob!” Conner cheered. “Nearly there!”  
“Anybody have the heart to tell him that his teammate is not doing so well?” Rose looked between Selina and Jason, who looked vaguely uncomfortable themselves. Dick was cheering as well, though he probably was seeing that Tim was having a hard time.  
“Move, move, move!” Dinah shouted angrily.

Tim grit his teeth as he wound between the bars and hoops of Power Surge. He just needed to get to the mega point thruster as quickly as possible, and the to the next obstacle.  
He reached out for it – still 20 point on it, Courtney only got 18 – and just as he was about to press it, he could feel his body shifting unexpectedly, chains rattling around him.  
His arms went back up again reflexively, steadying himself. Eyes still looked on the mega point thruster.  
19  
18  
Tim’s hand shot out, uncaring if he unbalanced himself.

“Master Red Robin is now one point behind Miss Star Girl, hitting the mega point thruster barely a second too late.”  
“Oh, that’s gotta hurt!” Lois laughed. “He’s scooching over to the spiral pretty fast, but that doesn’t matter, now does it? He’ll have to reach the end of Vortex or at least the point thruster that’s all the way up there.”

“Whoo!” Conner was jumping up and down.  
Dinah was looking on horrified.

One hand then the next. Tim was inching his way up, careful to not drop for even a second. Trying to relax here would only mean that he couldn’t get back up again.  
One hand then the next.  
His arms were shaking – he had done more and worse, but rarely had he had to focus on only one muscle group for such a long time. There wasn’t even space to put his legs so that he could rest against a wall.  
One hand then the next.  
It wasn’t just his arms shaking now, but his fingers too. His hands were cupped around the metal, and even when the lifted them off, he didn’t have time to flex and relieve them.  
One hand.

“There he goes!” Jason jeered. Tim hit the water gently, controlling his fall all the way down.  
“Oh no!” Conner sagged into himself.  
Selina laughed, slinging her arm around Dinah’s shoulder.  
“Oh, you haven’t won yet.” Dinah grumbled. “Nightwing still needs to go.”  
“Birdy, now you’re just desperate.”

Dick ran up to the platform and immediately jumped onto the conveyor belt, not stopping at all. The camera swung after him wildly, not expecting him to start yet.  
He jumped off at just the last second, immediately pulling himself up on the ropes to get into a position where he could hit the point thruster as he went around.  
Hitting it with his left foot, he also gave himself a small push, grinning at the wind in his hair. This is what he had been missing this entire night!  
From one rope to the next and then to the suspended bars. Swinging through them reminded Dick of the times he had played on the chandelier in Bruce’s ball room, and the one in the reception hall.  
He hit the mega point thruster, not looking at the number, but wincing at the same time. Tim had done so well the entire time! But Courtney had done a great job as well.  
Perhaps it was better this way – the whole course already felt a bit too much in the Bats favour to him.

“He’s going up the vortex and I’m seeing Catwoman and Black Canary are taking it pretty weird.” Lois wasn’t looking at Nightwing anymore – why would she, when it was clear that he was going to fly through this course as well.  
“Wonder what’s going on down there?”  
Oracle grumbled, thinking of her team’s antics. “Oh, I’m sure I can take a guess at a couple of likely scenarios.”

Dick clung to the vortex with one arm as he turned and hit the point thruster on his way up. There wasn’t much more to go, and he had no idea what was up at the end. It was bound to be interesting though.

“I can’t believe that he’s all the way up Vortex.” Cyborg frowned. “You know, I can’t say if it’s good sportsmanship that he’s still going, or if he’s just showing off now.”  
“Next obstacles, for those who haven’t seen it before, and why would you have, is pipecleaners, another one that focuses on arm strength alone.” Oracle explained.  
“He’s already to the next one – ops, he forgot the point thruster at the bottom.” Cyborg rubbed his temples. “Doesn’t really matter at this point, does it?”  
“A bit sad though – he doesn’t get full marks for this then.”

As Dick was once again bowing to the audience, Courtney looked at Wally and Steve shocked. They for their part were still clapping and laughing.  
“Alright, on to level four then!”  
She had made it?

“This level was though, but everybody made it through pretty well! Next up is level four, which is usually reserved for the grand finale of a season, but since we are doing a charity even here, our top two contestant will compete for the winner of this episode next round!”


	4. Round 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One last Round (this is a one-off special after all) to decide who the Ultimate Beastmaster will be!

„It’s the last level – and this one is a race to the top! Here the last two contestants must climb a tower, choosing between various obstacles, to reach the point thrusters in time. In level four these point thrusters are the only way to get points. As soon as they start to climb the tower the point thrusters start counting downwards, so speed is of the essence.  
They start on  
Ricochet – two scalable beams that go up in a V formation – there are only grips on parts of each beam, so the contestants must jump between them. After that they have the choice between  
Full Tilt – where they scale six blocks to pull them down and advance or  
Drop Tank – which consists of several platforms that drop down as soon as you step on them.  
Afterwards they reach their first point thruster and then it is on to:  
Motherboard – Contestants have two pegs which they use in the hole ridden wall of Motherboard to climb up further. They than either go along:  
Razor’s Edge – a bridge made out of see-through plexiglass triangles or  
Vertigo – a rolling pin the have to shimmy along to get on the other side.  
Here they hit their second point thruster before climbing up to the very top of the tower, using one of three different paths:  
Rope Climb – which I guess you all know what it is  
I-Beam Cross – a beam like in the beginning at Ricochet that gets narrower to the top or  
Pipecleaner – where contestants wedge themselves between two walls to walk up.  
On top is the last point thruster for level four.  
Only Star Girl and Nightwing remain in the competition.”

“I can’t believe Star Girl is on the final level.” Lois muttered as she watched the small crowd of superheroes going wild before her.  
“She has done very well thus far.” Alfred interjected. “It is a pity that people tend to overlook heroes that are not as flashy as others.”  
“Oh, I would say she is plenty of flashy.” Lois grinned back. “Compared to the bats at least. But I guess she is a bit middle of the road.” Lois’ grin turned sharper. “At least you still have one Gotham boy in the race huh?”  
“He better make it.” Oracle grumbled. “If he doesn’t, he sure as hell can’t show his face in HQ anymore.”

One the one hand – Dick was the last contestant for their entire family that was still in the race. Since none of them had powers, winning something as trivial as an obstacle course, should be easy for them. After all, how else where they keeping up with all the metas and aliens on their various teams?  
On the other hand – seeing Dick fail now, would be _hilarious_.  
Jason was torn. Tim apparently had made up his mind and was cheering on Courtney together with Conner. Beryl was talking to Dinah and Selina – who themselves were still deep in conversation about something or another. But they were also clearly standing off to Courtney’s side of the field, where Wally and Steve were currently both loudly cheering.  
Only Rose stood with Dick on the other side and looked anything but cheerful.  
“Screw this.” Jason turned to the right. Dick would be fine – and he might as well have some fun tonight.

“Star Girl’s up!” Cyborg shouted, echoed by an enthusiastic cry from the field. “Flash is going to be hoarse for weeks if he keeps this up.”  
“Looks like they are all cheering her on!” Beast Boy craned his neck. “Even Nightwing!”  
“And up Star Girl goes, jumping between the beams.” Cyborg nodded approvingly. “She still has a lot of energy this late at night.”  
“No offense, dude, but she’ll need it. Pretty sure Nightwing is only waking up now, being a bat and all.”

Courtney couldn’t stop to think which path to take. There was no time. Nightwing was more used to this and would be faster. She couldn’t waste a single second, and even then, she had to hope that he would slip at some point.  
Reaching up to the bars for Full Tilt was faster than trying to get up to the top and then run across the other obstacle. At least she thought so.  
“C’mon!” She hissed. Boosting herself up she grabbed the next handle.

“Oh, come on, she should have chosen the other one!” Jason groaned. It was too loud, and the light around them too bright for him to notice Beryl sneaking up beside him. At least if she hadn’t cackled at the same time.  
“Hood, just a tip between two good chums? Take a couple of steps with me and you’ll see something incredible during break.”

“Star Girl gets 225 points for the first section!” Lois narrowed her eyes. “What in the world is up with the point scaling in this level? They only got twenty per obstacle last time, this is practically a hundred per now!”  
“I guess it makes it look more epic.” Oracle shrugged. “But if it makes you feel better, you can think of it as 45 points.”  
“Yes, it does.” Lois grumbled.  
“Ms. Star Girl is struggling a bit with the obstacle called ‘Motherboard’” Alfred steered the conversation backwards. (“Stupid name.” Oracle said under her breath) “However, she does not seem to be tiring at all.”  
“You’ve got to give it to the tighty-whities group. They sure can hold in there.” Lois huffed.

“C’mon Star Girl!” Wally cheered, unfazed by the fact that Courtney was moving far too slowly – not just for him personally, but for the competition as well. “You can do it!”  
“Just run on the bridge!” Steve shouted. Wally didn’t think that Courtney could hear him, but she did as he said anyway.  
No hesitation, no looking down, she simply darted across the bridge staring straight ahead.  
“Good!”

Courtney hit the second point thruster – 334 points this time. Why was she getting so many points? It was ridiculous.  
There was only one thing left to do, to get to the top of the tower. She was already gripping the I-Beam, which according to Steve would be the fastest way. She could only hope that he was right.  
She huffed at the ridiculousness off it all. If she had her staff, she could simply fly up to the tower in seconds!  
Then again, that was the whole point of the competition – but she was already longing to get her powers back and beat up some bad guys, flying and floating through the air.

“Nearly there-“ Cyborg was leaning over the podium. “She has great grip strength, look at that! She’s nearly up there, only a little bit more-“

“SHE’S UP!” Steve yelled, while Wally let out a wordless shout. Conner and, surprisingly enough, Jason, Tim and Beryl were chanting, while Selina and Dinah were clapping along.

“Grgk.” Courntey pressed the last point thruster, all strength leaving her arms. She practically dropped her hand on top of it, pulling the handle more with gravity than with her strength. “Done.” She huffed, a small satisfied smile on her face.

“Another 690 points – again ridiculous – and Star Girl now has 1,249 points in total at level four!” Lois shouted into her microphone over Cyborg’s loud cheering.  
“Now let’s see if Nightwing trips on his way up!”

“Whatever you do – you’re going to crush this, okay?” Rose stared intently at Dick, who was smiling like a lunatic.  
“Sure but come on, Rose – live a little! Star Girl did great, honestly everyone did. It’s amazing to see, right?”  
Rose silently raised an eyebrow.  
“Okay, so maybe Flash was a bit disappointing, and Superboy too, but everyone else was great.” He nudged her gently with his shoulder. “I’m going to crush it okay? But I’m going to have fun doing it. Try to have some fun as well?”  
Rose rolled her eye. “Sure. As long as you crush it.”

“Now?” Dinah hissed at Selina.   
“Look at her.” Selina inclined her head. “She’s basically waiting to leave the moment Nightwing presses the last buzzer-point thing. It’s now or never.”  
Dinah took a deep breath, trying to ignore both Beryl and Jason watching her, giddy and confused respectively.  
“Alright then.” There was no way that Dinah Lance, the Black Canary, would back down from a bet. Even a stupid bet like theirs with a stupid stake like this.  
She marched towards Amanda Waller, who was standing close enough to the wall of the commentator booth that she wouldn’t be on any camera shots.

Amanda checked the time again. It didn’t help of course – the show would be recorded until it was finished and would then later be cut together so it would fit into forty minutes. But it gave her something to do.  
She had taken a change of business attire with her, not the workout clothes she had worn for her run. She was dressed and ready to go and be more productive than to stand around, watching up close how the superheroes ran circles around each other.  
If she really wanted to watch them, she would get footage of their fights she could slow down and analyze carefully.   
While she couldn’t see the commentators – which wasn’t necessary, thanks to Impulse’s constant narrating, that she could sadly hear – she could still see the rest of the competitors. So, she immediately noticed when Catwoman teased and prodded at Black Canary, until she squared her shoulders and walked over to where Amanda was standing.  
Just perfect.  
Black Canary’s face was set hard, but Amanda had cracked tougher people before.   
“Canary.” Waller nodded at her, watching and waiting.   
“Waller.” Black Canary stopped at a respectful distance from her. If she chose to attack there would be enough distance for Amanda to get out of the way. That was of course, if Black Canary didn’t use her powers to attack.   
“You’ll probably be leaving soon, so I wanted to say this now.”  
“You ‘wanted’?” Waller interrupted. Black Canary clearly hadn’t wanted to be in this position in the first place.  
“I wanted to congratulate you on your run.” Black Canary continued, ignoring Amanda’s comment. “You beat Flash and technically got further than Steve.”  
Amanda straightened up. Something was up. There was no way that Black Canary was here to honestly congratulate her.  
(Even if she was a bit proud of beating the Flash at least.)  
“You really did hang in there.”

“OHHHHH!” Selina, Beryl and Jason crowed.

Amanda starred at Dinah. Her face didn’t show anything else than her usual expression of annoyance. If she didn’t know better, Black Canary would have expected heat vision to shoot out of Amanda’s eyes. Surely Clark would have told them, if Amanda was related to Zod?

“I see.” Amanda thought of the posters HR had taken to hang up in the break room. One of it was depicting a cat with the words “Hang in there” clutching a cloth line. The thing was going _down_. Before anybody else got any smart ideas behind her back.  
Black Canary nodded and then turned around, walking back to Catwoman.

“Let it be known, that Black Canary honors her word.” Selina said in a sing-song voice. “Amazing job out there.”  
“If Waller gives the JL or us or anybody a bad time, I’m blaming you.” Dinah shot back.

“Nightwing is finally up!” Cyborg said.  
Lois looked at Cyborg critically. “He’s technically your rival here, why are you so cheerful.”  
“Dude, we’ve been friends since forever.” Beast Boy rolled his eyes. “I mean, yeah, he’s here for the Titans, but it doesn’t _really_ matter, you know?”  
“HesRedRobinsolderbroandRobalwayssaysthathesprettygreatsoImfinecheeringhimontoo!” Impluse quickly spit out.  
“Right.” Lois leaned backwards. “Taking this as a positive note. You guys?”  
Oracle and Alfred raised their eyebrows as well, in tandem. Lois put her hands up.  
“Just checking!”

“I hope you slip!” Tim yelled.  
“I hope you fall over!” Beryl shouted.  
“Break a leg!” Jason roared.  
Tim and Beryl looked at him. Jason looked back.  
Jason tilted his head before realization hit him. “I mean actually break one!”  
“I hope you break off your fingernails!” Selina cried.

Dick grinned as he looked up the tower, ignoring the cries behind him. Focus on the show, not on the audience. The audience _was_ important of course, but they were the ones who were supposed to sit back and enjoy, while Dick did the work.  
He sent the camera a two fingered salute and a wink and started off on the beams.  
Jumping back and forth, back and forth, he frowned as he noticed by his internal clock, that he was slower than he thought.  
Was Courtney taller than him? No.  
He jumped backwards again, as it dawned on him.  
He probably should go all the way up, as far as he could, before jumping.

“He – he’s taking a bit longer here than Star Girl.” Cyborg chocked out. “What is he doing?”

“Go, you dick, go!” Rose screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a good think that his name doubled as a swear sometimes. Made things easier.

Dick vaulted on top of the landing and took two steps to the side, so that he was facing Drop Tank. He wasn’t sure why Courtney hadn’t taken that route, but there was no way that the other way was faster.  
He darted across it light footed and picked up the pegs for Motherboard.  
Looking up at it he blinked. He was forgetting something.  
“Oh right.” He murmured and squatted right beside the wall to kick the point thruster.

“Only 211 points. If he loses here, I’m putting all his bank accounts to zero.” Oracle hissed.  
“Perhaps that would be a bit too much.” Alfred chided gently. “Though I must admit, I would hope that Master Nightwing pays more attention to actually getting points as well as getting ahead.”

Dick climbed up the wall quickly, aware that he had been slightly behind in time when he had hit the point thruster. He stretched his arms as far as possible and when he reached the first foot hold, he simply took both pegs out of the holes in the wall and jumped up, jamming them back in at a greater height.  
Was that legal?  
He continued upwards, but nobody was calling him down.  
He used the second foothold to jump again.  
Apparently, it was legal.

“It’s not how it is supposed to be done.” Oracle said slowly. “But there is nothing in the rules _against_ it, so I guess he’s alright.”

Up on top Dick ran lightly across the bridge. Why somebody would use the other path he couldn’t understand. Even people who were afraid of heights would have a worse time on a spinning log, surely?  
This time he hit the point thruster immediately with 373 points on it. He was ahead of Courtney now.

“Nice one.” Courtney smiled. 

For the briefest moment Dick thought about using the rope to get up. For old times’ sake. Memories of him and Batman using ropes to climb up building the ‘old fashioned way’ came to him unbidden. He shook his head – it probably wasn’t the quickest option.  
He got on the I-Beam and now that he didn’t have to worry about jumping off it, he climbed up as fast as he could.

“That’s insane.” Lois’ eyes were wide. “That shouldn’t physically be possible!”  
“He’s used to it. It would probably take him a bit longer if it rained, but as is.” Oracle trailed off and shrugged.  
“He’s up!” Beast Boy shouted. “He’s on top of the tower, hits the point thruster with 746 points!”  
“That would make it a total of 1,320 points.” Alfred inclines his head. “Which would mean this level goes to him.”  
“He won, dude!” Beast Boy jumped up and down, hugging Alfred. “Nightwing made it!”

Dick bowed once again, before going over to the wide-eyed assistant.  
“We’re not just jumping down I guess?” He grinned. The woman before him shook her head. She then leaned forward.  
“We’re not supposed to ask but – can I get an autograph?”

“You were great!” Courtney shouted, darting forward to give Dick the first hug, as he hit the ground.  
“_You_ were great!” He immediately retorted. “You did a much better job on the first one – good eye for distance-“  
Anything else they might have said was drowned out, as the others – Beast Boy, Cyborg and Impulse, who had simply jumped out of the booth as well – swarmed around them to cheer and shout.

“And that was it.” Lois said dryly, hoping her microphone would pick up her voice over the celebration. “A bunch of heroes, who are just as normal as you guys at home watching are, but somehow they are still better.”  
She waited for a beat, smiling at the now dancing crowd.  
“I guess it’s time to renew that gym membership once more, and then never go anyways.”


End file.
